The name “pulmonary hypertension” may be unfamiliar to many readers, or they may have only heard of it but do not know about it. In fact, pulmonary hypertension is a disease with a high incidence and a high risk of death. However, this is not recognized in China, and is even ignored by many doctors, resulting in a high rate of misdiagnosis and mistreatment of pulmonary hypertension. The purpose of this article is to draw the attention of readers to this disease, and also to help those patients who have been diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension to improve their understanding of this disease. 1. What is pulmonary hypertension? Pulmonary hypertension can be described as another kind of “high blood pressure”. The human heart is divided into the left heart system and the right heart system, and what we normally call hypertension refers to the elevated pressure in the arteries that supply blood to the whole body from the left heart, while the arteries from the right heart are specifically responsible for supplying blood to the lungs and are called pulmonary arteries, and the elevated pressure in these arteries is called pulmonary hypertension. Unlike ordinary hypertension, pulmonary hypertension cannot be measured from the body surface with an ordinary blood pressure monitor and requires special detection methods (echocardiography, right heart catheter), and is much more complicated and difficult to treat than ordinary hypertension, and is also more harmful. 2.What are the symptoms of pulmonary hypertension? The symptoms of pulmonary hypertension are not specific, including shortness of breath (especially when moving, such as when walking, going upstairs, or eating), chest pain, dry cough, dizziness or even syncope, general weakness, lower limb edema, etc. In severe cases of the disease, heart failure or even sudden death may occur. Since the symptoms are not specific and can appear in many other diseases, they are easily overlooked or misdiagnosed by patients or even doctors, delaying treatment. Therefore, we would like to remind readers that if the above-mentioned discomfort symptoms appear and persist without relief or get progressively worse, they should promptly visit a hospital to find the cause. If no other cause can be found, the possibility of pulmonary hypertension should be thought of. In addition, Raynaud’s phenomenon (the phenomenon of fingers turning white and purple when cold) is a symptom often associated with pulmonary hypertension, especially in patients with pulmonary hypertension associated with connective tissue disease, therefore, patients with Raynaud’s phenomenon should be more alert to the presence of pulmonary hypertension. 3.Who is prone to pulmonary hypertension? There are many causes of pulmonary hypertension, including connective tissue disease, congenital heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, sleep apnea syndrome, chronic plateau disease, pulmonary thromboembolism, cirrhotic portal hypertension, HIV infection, and certain appetite suppressant drugs. There are also patients whose pulmonary hypertension is the result of family genetic factors. If any of these factors are absent, the condition is called idiopathic pulmonary hypertension. It is important to emphasize here the pulmonary hypertension associated with connective tissue disease, which belongs to a large group of rheumatic immune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus, scleroderma, and mixed connective tissue disease, which are now found to be a very important cause of pulmonary hypertension, and rheumatologists are increasingly finding pulmonary hypertension in their patients. 4. How is pulmonary hypertension treated? Firstly, for pulmonary hypertension secondary to other diseases, treatment of the primary cause is essential. Secondly, treatment such as oxygenation and anticoagulation is the basis. In addition, many targeted drugs to reduce pulmonary artery pressure have emerged in recent years, such as calcium antagonists, endothelin receptor antagonists, phosphodiesterase inhibitors, prostacyclin analogs, etc. Most patients also need to choose one of them for treatment according to their specific conditions. Thanks to these therapeutic measures, the prognosis of patients with pulmonary hypertension has improved considerably. Early diagnosis and early treatment are crucial, and by the time drug therapy is ineffective in advanced disease, only heart-lung transplantation is the only way to possibly help the patient.